1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric actuator device and a printer including the piezoelectric actuator device.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been conventionally used, in various technical fields, a piezoelectric actuator which drives a piezoelectric element by changing a voltage applied between two types of electrodes sandwiching the piezoelectric element therebetween. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-120023 (FIG. 1) discloses a piezoelectric actuator usable in an ink-jet head, which jets ink from nozzles.
The piezoelectric actuator described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-120023 is provided to cover a channel unit of the ink-jet head which includes a plurality of pressure chambers each communicating with a plurality of nozzles. The piezoelectric actuator applies a pressure to the ink in each of the pressure chambers so as to jet the ink from each of the nozzles. More specifically, the piezoelectric actuator described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-120023 includes a piezoelectric layer arranged to cover the plurality of pressure chambers of the channel unit and two types of electrodes (a plurality of individual electrodes and a common electrode) provided on both surfaces of the piezoelectric layer, respectively. The two types of electrodes are arranged to sandwich the piezoelectric layer therebetween and are arranged to face the plurality of pressure chambers, respectively. In this construction, when a driver IC applies the voltage between the two types of electrodes, piezoelectric deformation occurs in a plurality of piezoelectric layer portions (piezoelectric elements) each of which is sandwiched between the two types of electrodes. Due to this deformation, the pressure is applied to the ink in each of the pressure chambers.
In general, one piezoelectric element is connected to one driver IC. Although two driver ICs are used in the piezoelectric actuator described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-120023, the plurality of piezoelectric elements are separated into two groups and each of the two groups corresponds to one of the two driver ICs. That is, in principle, each of the piezoelectric elements is connected to one of the two driver ICs.